Billecart-Salmon bubbles with the best of them

May 6, 2011 - Carla Tracy

Leave it to newspaper deadlines that I missed a tasting by one of the top champagne houses on the planet. Billecart-Salmon is the name, and its effervescent French product is like a nectar of the gods, liquid gold, and the people who attended were thrilled to be there.

“Billecart-Salmon rose is my absolute favorite,” says Chef Beverly Gannon, who hosted the tasting at her Gannon’s a Pacific View Restaurant last week for those in the industry. Everyone said she and her chefs outdid themselves with the pairing menu.

“It’s one of Wolfgang Puck’s favorites,” says Jacques Perwin, general manager of Spago at the Four Seasons Resort Maui in Wailea. “It’s a tie for first with Krug.”

"Billecart-Salmon is my favorite family-run, family-owned hand-made Rose Champagne,” says Cecil Kepner, general manager of DUO at the Four Seasons Resort Maui. “I love to drink the PINK! I have enjoyed the Billecart Rose for years and it was a standard on the champagne cart, where I worked in San Francisco. At DUO, we just got our shipment in for Mother’s Day.”

The company representing Billecart-Salmon here on Maui is Chambers and Chambers Fine Wine Merchants.

“We are honored to have picked up one of the most prestigious champagne houses,” says sales representative Jim Powlan. “It was founded in 1818 with the marriage of Nicolas Billecart and Elisabeth Salmon. Many people feel the Rose from Billecart is the best there is, but the rest of the wines are equally delicious.”

On hand at the tasting was Geoffrey Loisel, the general manager for the United State for Billecart-Salmon. He’s based in New York City.